​DreamingOutLoud

In my last missive, I waxed poetic about how I found my purpose and the mini mid-life crisis I was having...howlin...

[Take me to the Retreat now! ](https://www.thedreamunlocked.com/buy-dreaming-morocco-retreat.html?link_list=4753907) I talked about my business coach encouraging me to start working for myself. To start making something that my heart would guide...that was important to me.

I have to say, creating my own online teaching business in tandem with producing my own work was definitely the key to a turnaround in my thinking.

The effort it takes to create a structure that will support you both financially and spiritually is no easy venture.

But here's what I learned:

**When you give birth to your dreams, ****doubt, ****insecurity, ****fears of not being enough, ****worries about what tomorrow ****will look like fade away.**

What happens is you take your attention off of your fear and place it on a task that needs to happen do or die.

**Problem**I didn't like the roles I was auditioning for and I didn't like what producers were trying to pay me for my ivy league education

**Solution**Wrote a solo show and a multicharacter play and produced them. Learned how to produce film and Broadway by doing it. Ended up on a Tony-winning producing team and taking four films to Sundance.

Once I got to work, and believe me, it's hellified amounts of work, I had no time for doubt. I was too exhausted.

I was hired to understudy a broadway play with the understanding that I would definitely be going on for the lead. So, I got in there and rehearsed like a mad woman.

At the same time, I was also on the producing teams of two other Broadway shows where I learned so much about how to raise money, marketing, what reading nightly performance reports was all about, how much money people lose investing in storytelling, but they still do it...

And most importantly, I remember being exhausted on a two show day, but the record release party for _Porgy & Bess_ was happening around the corner from my theatre...as a producer, it was my job to show up....but more importantly, as a black woman producer on Broadway, it was mandatory.

When I got there, I saw all these amazing artists who looked like the people of Catfish alley...with voices of angels and thought, "Why have I never seen these actors before, they are brillant?"

The answer was right there in my face...but I wasn't trying to accept it, until a beautiful chocolate man with a hot-syrup-on-a-drop-biscuit voice walked up to me and said,

"Are you the black lady producer?"

And I looked around and saw I was the only one and said,

"Uhm, yes..."

He said:

"Thank you...thank you for giving us work. I ain't never seen no Black lady producer on broadway."

And in that instant, I was a puddle...

I'm a weeper, I admit it...soft to the core and nothing makes me more tearful than someone acknowledging that something I did had deep meaning for them....connection...

He then proceeded to fix me a plate of collard greens and cornbread while handing me tissue.

There were a bunch of actors around the table laughing and handing me tissue as well.

I was so busy being on the task of making all the projects I was working on come to fruition that I had no idea what my being involved meant to be people.----------

I was a part of a project that gave black artists work, 401K contributions, mortgage payments, health insurance. I was doing what I wrote about in my plays: creating institutions of power for black people. Learning how to create wealth and work by working for yourself.

After that day, nothing felt the same...Never mind if you look at the Tony pictures I look like a starved scarecrow because I dropped 20lbs in one month (trust I've since made up for it), but the why of what I was doing was clear and the results were tangible.

This was a turning point that allowed me to put rejection from my industry in perspective. I was doing what I felt was truly important for me and for black people. I've never like the idea that my entire life and welfare lies in the hands of some random white people giving me an acting job based on some lame "strong black woman" stereotypes.

I've never fancied how my industry reduces me down into something predictable and manageable in its storytelling. I didn't like being dependent on a system I fundamentally didn't believe in for my lifelihood.

This moments was enormous.

And this is where my DreamingOutLoud technique began to take shape.

Remember the last email, 16 Uncomfortable Feelings that Actually Indicate You're on the Right Path?

One of them was intense dreaming and emotional autonomy. That's what I was experiencing.

So, I got more insistent on my morning pages. And the focus was on my dreams.

I began writing them down...

And whatever popped up in my head during the course of my heated day.

The day after the Porgy & Bess Listening Party, I had an amazing dream that held the keys to unlocking my purpose.

I went back in my journals and found it to share with you. I don't want to overload you so I'll share it with you in our next newsletter...

But I want you to remember why it's so important to this journey we're on:

**1. This dream was the beginning of my formalizing this dreamingoutloud technique I outline in my Ted Talk.**

**2. This dream was also the beginning of my formulating the Emotional Type Technique that I teach my clients to figure out what their four major emotional chords are...or recurring themes in your life that drive you, make you feel alive, vulnerable and are the clue to finding purpose and meaning in this life. **

I believe your four major emotional chords are the lessons you are uniquely qualified to learn in this lifetime.----------

**It's why you were sent back. You're an expert at these things...lol. **

**3. When I visited Morocco, an amazing thing happened. People instantly started telling me their dreams. The deep unsaid stuff and I was able to hear it...because it felt like that was my purpose. I was supposed to be here to become a sounding board for this woman talking about her dream of running a hammam (Morocco spa) or the French Moroccan entrepreneur who returned to his roots to build a new business that's part retreat, part hotel, part school of life riad. **

**_People felt a need to tell me their dreams and listen as they fleshed out the details. And I realized that beyond storytelling and raising money to make that happen, I was also supposed to be a catalyst for people..._**

**And my job was simple, listen to their dreams, repeat them back to them and ask the kinds of questions that would help them organize these ideas into tangible, workable goals....**

**And your sharing your dreams is where we begin. It's where the questions show up. It's the sweet spot....

I will share with you my personal process because, well, I have permission to share my own dreams, but not necessarily those of my clients.**

Dreams are the incubators of your heart's desire.Listen to themThey are life's heartbeat...They are life's insistent demands upon your soul...They have answers that you are not listening to....They are life's fuel...

So, today I leave you with this...

Start writing down your dreams.==========

If you can't remember them, keep a pen by your bed and as soon as you wake up, write down the first thing that comes to mind.

**Write 3 pages long-hand.****Do this everyday for a week****Then at the end of the week, look through those notes and circle in big bright colorful ink the themes that keep recurring. ****It doesn't have to be complete ideas or thoughts****But rather concepts that trouble, inspire, confuse you or make you laugh, cry or get mad****These are important clues we need to start decoding.**

In my next email, I'm going to share my dream with you and how I decoded it. That decoding became the stew where I cooked up a play, created a business and developed the dreamingoutloud and emotional typing techniques that are the foundations of my business, my heart and spirit.

Stay tuned...

Stay present...

And let me know how this goes.What are you learning?What do you need help decoding?

In about a week or so, I'm going to host a free webinar where folks can dial in and we'll do some of the cool exercises that will be the focus of our work at the

Which BTW is selling really nicely. The first week, 20% of the spaces are already filled.

So, you can continue this journey with the FREE class and blogs I'm offering or you can take the leap of faith and treat yourself to 17 days of exploring not only a 13th century country full of wonder, but also exploring what your dreams mean, what your heart's desire is and how to shape that into something tangible, and life changing for you:

- a dream is a business waiting to happen- a dream is a vocation waiting to be shaped into a piece of art- a dream holds the keys to your happiness and a purpose-driven life